British family including boy, 9, at the heart of coronavirus outbreak in France after catching it from Brighton man
THIS is the British family - including a nine-year-old boy - believed to have been diagnosed with coronavirus in France.
Environmental consultant Bob Saynor, 48, and his son have been named locally as being at the centre of the outbreak in the Alps.
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Three other Brits from another family who were staying in the Saynor's six-bedroom chalet in Les Contamines-Montjoie are also being treated in hospital.
His son went to local schools, along with his two siblings, who are also under observation.
He had attended school in Contamines-Montjoie and also spent a day at a second school in the nearby town of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains. Both are now closed.
The Saynor family moved permanently to the chalet from their home in Brighton three years ago, according to Louise Gasparelli - a close friend of the family.
French health minister Agnes Buzyn said the "initial case" involved a UK passport holder who had stayed in Singapore between January 20 and 23.
French officials said the British national who was in Singapore returned on January 24.
The man is the third person in the UK who has tested positive for the illness, according to health officials in Singapore.
He stayed for four days at a ski chalet in the Alpine resort of Contamines-Montjoie, in the eastern Haute-Savoie region of France, before returning to England on January 28.
Jean-Yves Grall, the head of the regional health authority, said the child’s mother ‘was in Britain taking exams’ at the time of the contamination.
Etienne Jacquet, the mayor of Contamines-Montjoie, said: "I was called by the regional health agency at 12.30am on Saturday about two British families.
"Seven were in one chalet and four in another. Of the 11 people, five have tested positive for the coronavirus."
The businessman had travelled to attend a business conference in the South - East Asian country, where he picked up the virus.
The patient - thought to be in his late 40s or early 50s - walked into A&E in Brighton after feeling unwell.
He is being treated a specialist isolation unit at Guy's Hospital in London and will remain in quarantine for two weeks.
Chemists say they are running out of masks after people began panic buying them.
The five Britons were diagnosed with coronavirus on Friday night and they are being treated in hospitals in France along with six others who came into contact with him.
Two of the apartments in the ski chalet were being examined, health ministry officials said, adding that so far no other people had been affected by the outbreak in the resort.
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The infected Britons had been hospitalised overnight in the region, in the cities of Lyon, Grenoble and Saint-Etienne, the ministry added.
And a student believed to have come into contact with the man has now been told to self-isolate at home for two weeks over fears they may also have the bug, reports.
The man had travelled to a business conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Singapore in mid-January, health officials said.
At least two other people, from Malaysia and Korea, have contracted coronavirus after attending the meeting of more than 100 international delegates from an as yet unnamed sales firm.
Meanwhile, the two patients who tested positive for coronavirus last week remain at Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
The University of York student and his family member had been taken ill at Staycity Aparthotel in York last Friday.
A British man is among 61 passengers on a cruise ship to have caught the cornonavirus.
Alan Steele - along with eight Americans, 21 Japanese, five Australians, five Canadians, and an Argentinian - caught the virus on board the Diamond Princess moored off Japan.
The death toll has now risen to 805 with more than 34,800 cases globally after the virus appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Professor John Edmunds, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said modelling showed there were “ten times more cases than have been reported – or even more”.
“And none of the tests is going to be 100 per cent sensitive so it is not unusual to only capture maybe 10 per cent of the cases," he said.
Coronavirus outbreaks have reportedly slowed down for two consecutive days in China but officials have declared the worse is not yet over.
A 60-year-old, who died in Wuhan, has become the first US casualty of the virus.
The Chinese authorities have promised to investigate the death of whistleblower Dr Li Wenliang, who was arrested for first reporting coronavirus outbreak, which he initially thought was SARS.
The 34-year-old died after contracting the deadly virus himself, leading to an widespread grief and anger against the authorities.